I don't think I've ever been so thorn about whether or not to buy a game in Early Access or not. On one hand, it means, by default, that it isn't finished. (and I don't have an issue with that in...
I don't think I've ever been so thorn about whether or not to buy a game in Early Access or not.
On one hand, it means, by default, that it isn't finished. (and I don't have an issue with that in principle, it can be very useful for developers)
On the other hand... man it's the sequel of Hades of all things.
Bastion, Transistor, Pyre, Hades; IF there was ever a developer that makes me doubt my stance on Early Access, it'd probably be Supergiant. However, my stance remains. I don't do preorders and I...
Bastion, Transistor, Pyre, Hades; IF there was ever a developer that makes me doubt my stance on Early Access, it'd probably be Supergiant.
However, my stance remains. I don't do preorders and I don't pay for incomplete products, so I don't do Early Access. Steam's recent change/clarification of their refund window only cements it further as playtime in Early Access will result in no refund if the game ends up not being to your liking or isn't playable. A few months in Early Access with someone popping in for a few minutes at a time to see if XYZ is better/fixed is more than enough to hit the two hour limit and make it non-refundable.
There's nothing to gain buying into Early Access. The full game will release when it's ready, the only thing you're getting with Early Access is paying them to do their QA testing.
Id argue that a community is often at its best and most interesting when the product is in flux. There's always new things to discuss, new metas to explore, and in cases like with Supergiant, you...
Id argue that a community is often at its best and most interesting when the product is in flux. There's always new things to discuss, new metas to explore, and in cases like with Supergiant, you have an attentive dev who's trying to make the experience better. That means that if you have feedback about how the game should be, that may actually make it into the game. For someone who wants to be involved in a community, there's no better time to start playing a game.
I agree with that. There's three type of early access: the one that's purely marketing and is only some sort of an extended demo the one that's a source of cash for budget tight developpers the...
I agree with that. There's three type of early access:
the one that's purely marketing and is only some sort of an extended demo
the one that's a source of cash for budget tight developpers
the one where there's a genuine will to make the game better based on feedback
Reality is of course a mix of all three, but Supergiant (along with Larian, Motion Twins, ... others?) tends to gravitate towards the latter.
Early Access is worth it if you think the game is worth the cost in it's current state. I bought Ultrakill right after Act 2 (out of a propsed 3 acts) came out because the price was reasonable for...
There's nothing to gain buying into Early Access.
Early Access is worth it if you think the game is worth the cost in it's current state. I bought Ultrakill right after Act 2 (out of a propsed 3 acts) came out because the price was reasonable for what I'd seen/heard of the state of the game. I played through it and it was an absolute blast. If the dev had abandoned the project right after I'd bought it, then I'd still have considered it a solid buy. Updates have continued to add content towards completing what was promised, but I just consider that gravy at this point.
Similarly, I bought The Long Dark back when it was early in Early Access. The gameplay was slim and it was brutally difficult (it was basically just Wolf Attack Simulator at that point) but I got absorbed into it and ended up playing a dozen or so hours. It's been out of early access for a while now and I booted it back up to see what the finished product looks like but I'm not sure how much I'll play it now. The gameplay has a lot more added to it and a whole story was added but I sort of enjoyed it more when it was simpler and unfairly punishing. I don't much care for the finished product (no shade to the dev; it was a good choice and made the game much more accessible) so in a sense I paid for a game that didn't deliver what I'd hoped for, but the hours of enjoyment I've gotten out of it so far have more than justified the price in my mind.
I realize that's not always the case and there's always the possibility that the game dies in EA, but there's also a lot of fun in being a part of the community that's effectively playtesting these unfinished products. It's a risk that needs to be balanced; you have to go in with tempered expectations.
If you're interested in The Long Dark being more unfairly punishing, Interloper takes the best gear out of the world, and the world gets colder and colder over time. They also added scurvy in the...
If you're interested in The Long Dark being more unfairly punishing, Interloper takes the best gear out of the world, and the world gets colder and colder over time. They also added scurvy in the latest update to make food variety more important. The punishing experience is still there if you want it.
Yeah I'm really on the fence about it... It doesn't help that it says this on the announcement:
Yeah I'm really on the fence about it...
It doesn't help that it says this on the announcement:
We hope you enjoy discovering all that Hades II in Early Access has to offer! It already includes more environments, foes, and fully-voiced characters than the full version of the original game, and we have more in the works. An in-game development roadmap provides additional details about our update plans.
And with any other dev team I'd probably consider that a negative as it'd make me more wary of it being bug-ridden and whatnot. But given the absolute masterpiece that Hades is...
And with any other dev team I'd probably consider that a negative as it'd make me more wary of it being bug-ridden and whatnot. But given the absolute masterpiece that Hades is...
My approach to things like this has always been, "Have I gotten way more than my money's worth out of the previous game?" And if so, and I've gotten the value out of the cost of the new game out...
My approach to things like this has always been, "Have I gotten way more than my money's worth out of the previous game?" And if so, and I've gotten the value out of the cost of the new game out of the previous one, then I just buy it, no questions asked. Because of that policy I've bought things like Civilization: Beyond Earth and Sports Story, which I didn't love, but I don't feel at all ripped off, since Civ 5 gave me way more entertainment than its $50 price (or whatever it was), and same for the super-charming Golf Story. Hades was amazing, so $30 for the sequel is without question.
Maybe you're not even thinking about the cost, but I thought I'd throw my philosophy about that out there. It's the internet, after all, so we can just talk into the digital ether. I think I'm jumping in tonight just because it's been a while since I've played Hades, and Hades 2 looks great.
I'm in the camp of "If I'm going to put 60 hours into this game eventually, I'd rather do it when it's done, not while it's incomplete". I'd rather wait for all the quality of life features and...
I'm in the camp of "If I'm going to put 60 hours into this game eventually, I'd rather do it when it's done, not while it's incomplete". I'd rather wait for all the quality of life features and the potential game breaking bugs to be implemented/fixed as necessary and have the best experience I can. I'll have more fun with it later and there's no rush.
I'm typically torn about Early Access as well. But Hades was born of Early Access, and Supergiant to-date hasn't done anything wrong by me, as a consumer. Hades (the first one), I think, is the...
I'm typically torn about Early Access as well. But Hades was born of Early Access, and Supergiant to-date hasn't done anything wrong by me, as a consumer. Hades (the first one), I think, is the only game I've ever paid into for Early Access - and I do not regret having done so.
I've played everything they've put out, and they've all been fantastic. Granted, it only takes one stinker to ruin that goodwill, but I have little reason to doubt them as it stands.
Totally agreed. I’m so excited for Hades II, and it’d be fun to be a part of the Early Access journey… but at the same time, I also want to experience the story in its entirety, and I worry about...
Totally agreed. I’m so excited for Hades II, and it’d be fun to be a part of the Early Access journey… but at the same time, I also want to experience the story in its entirety, and I worry about how much the game may change and fluctuate during the Early Access period. I remember hearing that Hades often changed quite significantly, so I’d be afraid of getting attached to certain builds or abilities and them then changing on me, you know?
Very much this. I loved Hades in early access, but I burned out on it before 1.0, and so I never got the end of the story despite beating Hades dozens of times. I'm going to wait this time, though...
Very much this. I loved Hades in early access, but I burned out on it before 1.0, and so I never got the end of the story despite beating Hades dozens of times. I'm going to wait this time, though this may be the perfect time to get the most out of Hades and polish my skills at the same time.
Yeah I'm the same. I waited until Hades showed up on Steam. I love and own every game from SuperGiant (well, Pyre wasn't my favourite). I will absolutely buy Hades 2 when it's finished. But I also...
Yeah I'm the same. I waited until Hades showed up on Steam. I love and own every game from SuperGiant (well, Pyre wasn't my favourite). I will absolutely buy Hades 2 when it's finished. But I also believe it will be better from the people who buy it now and give feedback based on the first Hades.
I don't think I've ever been so thorn about whether or not to buy a game in Early Access or not.
On one hand, it means, by default, that it isn't finished. (and I don't have an issue with that in principle, it can be very useful for developers)
On the other hand... man it's the sequel of Hades of all things.
Bastion, Transistor, Pyre, Hades; IF there was ever a developer that makes me doubt my stance on Early Access, it'd probably be Supergiant.
However, my stance remains. I don't do preorders and I don't pay for incomplete products, so I don't do Early Access. Steam's recent change/clarification of their refund window only cements it further as playtime in Early Access will result in no refund if the game ends up not being to your liking or isn't playable. A few months in Early Access with someone popping in for a few minutes at a time to see if XYZ is better/fixed is more than enough to hit the two hour limit and make it non-refundable.
There's nothing to gain buying into Early Access. The full game will release when it's ready, the only thing you're getting with Early Access is paying them to do their QA testing.
Id argue that a community is often at its best and most interesting when the product is in flux. There's always new things to discuss, new metas to explore, and in cases like with Supergiant, you have an attentive dev who's trying to make the experience better. That means that if you have feedback about how the game should be, that may actually make it into the game. For someone who wants to be involved in a community, there's no better time to start playing a game.
I agree with that. There's three type of early access:
Reality is of course a mix of all three, but Supergiant (along with Larian, Motion Twins, ... others?) tends to gravitate towards the latter.
Early Access is worth it if you think the game is worth the cost in it's current state. I bought Ultrakill right after Act 2 (out of a propsed 3 acts) came out because the price was reasonable for what I'd seen/heard of the state of the game. I played through it and it was an absolute blast. If the dev had abandoned the project right after I'd bought it, then I'd still have considered it a solid buy. Updates have continued to add content towards completing what was promised, but I just consider that gravy at this point.
Similarly, I bought The Long Dark back when it was early in Early Access. The gameplay was slim and it was brutally difficult (it was basically just Wolf Attack Simulator at that point) but I got absorbed into it and ended up playing a dozen or so hours. It's been out of early access for a while now and I booted it back up to see what the finished product looks like but I'm not sure how much I'll play it now. The gameplay has a lot more added to it and a whole story was added but I sort of enjoyed it more when it was simpler and unfairly punishing. I don't much care for the finished product (no shade to the dev; it was a good choice and made the game much more accessible) so in a sense I paid for a game that didn't deliver what I'd hoped for, but the hours of enjoyment I've gotten out of it so far have more than justified the price in my mind.
I realize that's not always the case and there's always the possibility that the game dies in EA, but there's also a lot of fun in being a part of the community that's effectively playtesting these unfinished products. It's a risk that needs to be balanced; you have to go in with tempered expectations.
If you're interested in The Long Dark being more unfairly punishing, Interloper takes the best gear out of the world, and the world gets colder and colder over time. They also added scurvy in the latest update to make food variety more important. The punishing experience is still there if you want it.
Yeah I'm really on the fence about it...
It doesn't help that it says this on the announcement:
And with any other dev team I'd probably consider that a negative as it'd make me more wary of it being bug-ridden and whatnot. But given the absolute masterpiece that Hades is...
My approach to things like this has always been, "Have I gotten way more than my money's worth out of the previous game?" And if so, and I've gotten the value out of the cost of the new game out of the previous one, then I just buy it, no questions asked. Because of that policy I've bought things like Civilization: Beyond Earth and Sports Story, which I didn't love, but I don't feel at all ripped off, since Civ 5 gave me way more entertainment than its $50 price (or whatever it was), and same for the super-charming Golf Story. Hades was amazing, so $30 for the sequel is without question.
Maybe you're not even thinking about the cost, but I thought I'd throw my philosophy about that out there. It's the internet, after all, so we can just talk into the digital ether. I think I'm jumping in tonight just because it's been a while since I've played Hades, and Hades 2 looks great.
I'm in the camp of "If I'm going to put 60 hours into this game eventually, I'd rather do it when it's done, not while it's incomplete". I'd rather wait for all the quality of life features and the potential game breaking bugs to be implemented/fixed as necessary and have the best experience I can. I'll have more fun with it later and there's no rush.
I'm typically torn about Early Access as well. But Hades was born of Early Access, and Supergiant to-date hasn't done anything wrong by me, as a consumer. Hades (the first one), I think, is the only game I've ever paid into for Early Access - and I do not regret having done so.
I've played everything they've put out, and they've all been fantastic. Granted, it only takes one stinker to ruin that goodwill, but I have little reason to doubt them as it stands.
Totally agreed. I’m so excited for Hades II, and it’d be fun to be a part of the Early Access journey… but at the same time, I also want to experience the story in its entirety, and I worry about how much the game may change and fluctuate during the Early Access period. I remember hearing that Hades often changed quite significantly, so I’d be afraid of getting attached to certain builds or abilities and them then changing on me, you know?
But… it’s Hades II!!! Ugh! 😩
Very much this. I loved Hades in early access, but I burned out on it before 1.0, and so I never got the end of the story despite beating Hades dozens of times. I'm going to wait this time, though this may be the perfect time to get the most out of Hades and polish my skills at the same time.
Very tempting but I'm going to try to hold off. Games like this deserve to be played when they are fully released
Yeah I'm the same. I waited until Hades showed up on Steam. I love and own every game from SuperGiant (well, Pyre wasn't my favourite). I will absolutely buy Hades 2 when it's finished. But I also believe it will be better from the people who buy it now and give feedback based on the first Hades.